WORRIED that her daughters' budding breasts would expose them to the risk of sexual harassment and even rape, Philomene Moungang started "ironing" the girls' bosoms with a heated stone.

"I did it to my two girls when they were eight years old. I would take the grinding stone, heat it in the fire and press it hard on the breasts," the mother said. "They cried and said it was painful. But I explained that it was for their own good."

Breast "ironing" - the use of hard or heated objects to try to stunt breast growth in girls - is a traditional practice in West Africa, experts say.

A new survey has revealed it is shockingly widespread in Cameroon, where one in four teenagers are subjected to the traumatic process by relatives, often hoping to lessen their sexual attractiveness.

"Breast ironing is an age-old practice in Cameroon, as well as in many other countries in west and central Africa, including Chad, Togo, Benin, Guinea-Conakry, just to name a few," said Flavien Ndonko, an anthropologist for GTZ, a German development agency which sponsored the survey.

"If society has been silent about it up to now it is because, like other harmful practices done to women such as female genital mutilation, it was thought to be good for the girl," Dr Ndonko said. "Even the victims themselves thought it was good for them."

The practice has many side-effects, including severe pain and abscesses, infections, breast cancer, and even the complete disappearance of one or both breasts.

The survey of 5000 girls and women aged between 10 and 82 from Cameroon, published last month, estimated that 4 million women had suffered the process.

"When I was growing up as a little girl, my mother did it to me just as all other women in the village did it to their girl children," Mrs Moungang said. "So I thought it was just good for me to do to my own children."

The practice was less common in rural areas because mothers feared their children could be more exposed to sex abuse in towns and tried to suppress signs of sexuality, the survey said.

The practice is most common in the Christian and animist south of the country, rather than in the Muslim North and Far North provinces, where only 10 per cent of women are affected.

In 58 per cent of cases breast ironing was carried out by mothers, the survey found.

Many mothers were alarmed because improvements in nutrition and living conditions had caused young girls' breasts to develop earlier than ever.

The survey prompted a campaign to educate mothers about the practice's dangers. A similar campaign helped to reduce rates of female genital mutilation in Cameroon.

"A girl must be proud of her breasts because they are natural," said a campaign leaflet. "They are a gift from God. Allow the breasts to grow naturally. Do not force them to disappear or appear."

I feel really bad for the young girls caught up in these backward, ignorant, barbaric cultures. But the answer isn't to "tolerate" and "respect" the cultures as just one of the many "diverse" ways that human beings live. The answer is to eradicate the cultural practices, like the British clamped down on suttee in India.

There appears to be little or no concern that this is being done by the moms out of concern because of the lusty vermin men who have the notion that any girl/woman they choose is theirs to be had at any point in time...

"Actually we have a mentality here that men cannot just take what they want. Women here are treated as human beings.The ones that don't face pounishment.The same might work there if they ever bother to hold men accountable for their behavior. "

Did you not see the /sarc after my statement? I don't disagree with you. Young girls should never have to fear being raped or molested. Sadly, they do in some places...even in the United States, I fear.

Still, I believe that our habit of flaunting our collective daughters' sexual characteristics at a young age is a bad thing. Surely you've seen the pre-teens in little halter tops? That's just the opposite of what's going on over there in Africa, you see. That's why I said it, and that's why I added the /sarc.

Indeed. The Western concept of the worth of the individual is based upon the Judaic tradition as transmitted through Christianity. Unfortunately, Western culture has greatly rejected its tradition of self-respect (personal modesty), and has sexualized its children.

What bothers me is little 4 and 5 year old girls wearing belly shirts and little shorts or pants with words written across their bum. Why?

People don't understand the responsibilities of parenthood. They think their children are extensions of themselves and they are guided by popular culture instead of traditional morality (as taught by the Church). They don't allow their children to be children by protecting them from the sexualization rampant in secular culture.

It's really sad too that parents do that, kind of living through their children. It so hurts the child for the future, imo.

My brother and sister-in-law do that with my 4 year old neice. They aren't involved in the church and it shows. We pray for them all the time. Although my brother was raised believing in God and going to church and all that, he has fallen away because it's just not important to him and his wife doesn't know much and seems cut off from wanting to know.

Meanwhile, their kids will suffer as they don't guide them with God's will, imo. And I can already see my sister-in-law is forming a "best friend" type thing with my neice, with what she subjects her to (TV programming for teens (not little kids), the clothes she wears, verbage she uses, etc.). What ever happened to kids being kids? Why do they have to grow up so damn fast?

As parents, we're responsible for the future of our country, and our children are that future.

42
posted on 07/06/2006 1:09:43 PM PDT
by Lucky9teen
(Ask not what the government can do for you. Ask why it doesn't.)

It would be if it were indeed true. Been to both Togo and Benin Republic. Never saw or even heard of any such practice. Even dated a lady or two from Togo, and their breasts were as juicy and hot as any I have seen. I am always very skeptical of Europeans going to Africa, and coming back with tall tales

The practice has many side-effects, including severe pain and abscesses, infections, breast cancer, and even the complete disappearance of one or both breasts.

Presumably loss of ability to breast-feed too.

This is a much more extreme version of a common practice in this country in the 1920s, when it was fashionable for girls/women to be flat-chested, and many bound their breasts tightly every day. Probably made them droop early, but since they didn't sleep that way, and certainly weren't burning anything, it probably didn't do any serious damage. My grandmother and her sister both did this.

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